The <A HREF="http://www.hovlandcompany.com">Hovland Company</A> is no more. Less than 10 full years after its incorporation, the manufacturer of highly coveted Hovland Musicap propylene-film and aluminum-foil capacitors and visually striking electronic components has dismissed its staff and closed the doors of its manufacturing facility and headquarters in Los Angeles.
The sky over Madison Avenue is a sliver of summer blue. Steam sighs and whirls up and out from the old street like a thin white curtain in the wind. A few things, quickly, then:
<I>I used to be with it, but then they changed what it was. Now what I'm with isn't it, and what's it seems scary and weird. It'll happen to you.</I>—Abraham Simpson
When I was a kid, I saw the Marlon Brando remake of <I>Mutiny on the Bounty</I>. I'm sure you know the story—lots of bad-guy/good-guy tension between Captain Bligh and Fletcher Christian. There's also an overlay of class conflict, but with a twist: The up-and-comer is the sadist, while it's the aristocrat who is nature's nobleman.
Two years ago, I embarked on a series of reviews of mostly state-of-the-art, mostly full-range floorstanding speakers: the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/1207sonus">Sonus Faber Cremona Elipsa</A> (December 2007), <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/208kef">KEF Reference 207/2</A> (February 2008), <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/408psb">PSB Synchrony One</A> (April 2008), <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/508mag">Magico V3</A> (May 2008), <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/708ava">Avalon NP Evolution 2.0</A> and <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/708ava/index1.html">Epos M16i</A> (July 2008), <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/808eso">Esoteric MG-20</A> (August 2008), <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/dynaudio_sapphire_loudspea… Sapphire</A> (January 2009), and <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/608revel/index6.html">Revel Ultima Salon2</A> (March 2009). I had intended to intersperse those reports with coverage of some high-performance minispeakers, but for various reasons that never happened, so in the next few issues I'll be making up that lost ground, beginning with a promising contender from the UK, the Spendor SA1.
As the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show neared its end, I wandered into Blue Light Audio's room, which was dominated by the innards of darTZeel's new NHB-458 monoblocks—think of a 3D "exploded" diagram and you'll be on target. So impressive was that display of brute engineering that I almost didn't notice the amplifier that was actually making the music: the CTH-8550 integrated ($20,300).
Reader Mike Agee wonders why displays on disc players don't default to "time remaining" or why more power amps don't come with attenuators. What features do you think are missing from high-end audio components?
Is anyone in this economy shopping for a four-box, rack-swallowing, two-channel SACD/CD player contending for the state of the art and costing $79,996? dCS is betting that its Scarlatti will attract a small crowd of those wealthy music enthusiasts who, in <I>any</I> economy, reliably pony up for the best. For the rest of us, the Scarlatti will be a spectator sport.
There's an old Russian folktale about a farmer who goes to a fair. He buys a bread roll from a vendor. He eats it, but he's still hungry. So he buys and eats another roll, and then another. Still hungry. Next, he buys a donut from a different vendor. At last, he's no longer hungry. The farmer then says to himself, "I wasted the money I spent on the rolls—I should have just bought the donut first!"
I now own it on vinyl, too, of course, but four years ago, John Atkinson presented me with the SACD/CD dual-disc. It quickly <a href=" http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/101105kindofblue/ ">cured my headaches</a> and has remained one of my very favorite albums. Listening to it at least once a month keeps my mind and body healthy.